What's new in SharePoint Server 2016

SharePoint Server 2016 is evolving with features designed to be familiar, intuitive, and built for the way you work. Beginning with the November 2016 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016 (Feature Pack 1), we're taking what we learn as we improve Office 365 and bringing it to SharePoint Server. Here's an overview of some of what's new and improved with SharePoint Server 2016.

Modern OneDrive experience

The November 2016 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016 (Feature Pack 1) brings the modern OneDrive experience to SharePoint Server 2016. That means OneDrive for Business gets the updated look and functionality from Office 365. The commands to do things like upload, share, and sync are now up near the top of the page. From supported browsers, such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, you can now upload folders as well as files from the Upload menu.

You'll now see a view selector for changing between the list view and thumbnail view. The Information icon opens the Details pane, where you can see recent activity on files, share files, see who you're sharing with, and more.

Also, you can now open pictures and videos in the OneDrive experience, and use arrow keys to preview all supported files in a folder. It’s a great way to quickly go through all the photos in a folder.

Note: If you don't see the modern OneDrive experience, the Feature Pack updates haven't been applied. But you'll still see the rest of the features mentioned in this article.

SharePoint mobile apps

The SharePoint mobile apps are a new way to reach intranet content on your devices. You can download and install the app from the app store on your device. After you login to SharePoint Server 2016, you can navigate SharePoint sites, view links to sites your organization has marked as important, view people profiles and search for people, sites and documents.

Improved support for mobile browsers

On mobile browsers, SharePoint Server 2016 sites offer a consistent experience across screens and devices. When you use a browser on a mobile device to access your sites, you can more easily browse your sites, subsites, and content on those sites through touch-enabled views. For example, you can tap tiles or links to your libraries, open files, browse to other sites and quickly get to OneDrive.

You can also switch from the mobile view to see site pages in the full web view that you would see on a desktop computer.

Simpler navigation and commands

We're taking what we're learning as we improve SharePoint Online and bringing the simpler navigation and commands to SharePoint Server 2016.

App launcher
The app launcher helps you get to your apps from anywhere in SharePoint. Use the app launcher to quickly launch an application, browse sites and access your personal files. When you click (or tap) the app launcher icon
, you get a menu of apps and services in tiles like this:

New controls for site libraries and OneDrive for Business
Click a control to create a folder, upload files, sync your files for offline use, or share your files.

Sites page pinning You can now pin sites that you see on the sites page. A pinned site shows at the top of the list of sites that you're following.

Improved sharing experiences

SharePoint Server 2016 has the following enhanced sharing experiences:

Simple and natural site sharing
Just click the Share button at the top right corner of any page, enter the names of people you want to share with, and press Enter. That’s it; you’re done!

The people you just shared with will get an email invitation with a link to the site.
SharePoint still uses powerful concepts like permission levels, groups and inheritance to provide this experience, but you don’t have to understand those concepts anymore to accomplish everyday tasks like sharing a site.
Part of sharing is also understanding who can see something. If you want to find out who already has access to a particular site, simply go to the Settings menu in top right corner, click Shared with, and you’ll see the names and pictures of people who have access to the site.

Members can share Members of a site can share the site, not just site owners, as in past versions of SharePoint. Users can also grant the permission they have on a file or folder to other people.

Sharing emails You can send out sharing emails that include an anonymous guest link. Internal people have the option of clicking the guest link and accessing the site or document without having to sign in, and external people who receive a guest link have a one-time redemption link that they can use to access the site or document.

New Sharing dialog box You can create and share a folder as you create it from the new Sharing dialog box.

Access request redesign People who aren’t allowed to share can use the new sharing flow to request that the admin share with certain people.
The admin receives a one-click email to approve or deny a request for access .